By Joe Dunn / joe@onpitroad.com
When is Nascar Sprint Cup racing, not racing? When they go to Indy with a BAD tire for this track. This is not the first time for tire issues at the Brickyard, but with all the testing they have done, one would expect something better than what we did Sunday.
The problems really came to light during Saturday’s practices when teams reported tires falling apart after very few laps. But both Nascar and Goodyear knew about the problems before that. The last minute response was to haul in tires made to specs for Pocono next week. One has to wonder WHY? The Pocono tire is yet an even softer compound than the Indy tire, which was wearing to the cords, sometimes in as little as 8 laps.
With the longest green flag stretch at 12 laps, I have seen a lot more exciting racing watching 4 cylinders at the local dirt track. As the race progressed, the ESPN team in the booth strived to cover up the smell of this fiasco by telling viewers how much better and more exciting the racing was getting late in the race. I highly doubt that anyone who was actually watching the race seriously believed them, or owners Richard Childress or Joe Gibbs who professed that Nascar and Goodyear were doing a great job of adapting to a situation beyond their control.
In the end, the race came down to a 6 lap shootout, that looked anything like a shootout, but rather follow the leader pace laps as Jimmie Johnson took the uneventful checkered flag.
In the Nationwide Series, last week Nascar determined that the Toyota’s had a horsepower advantage so they issued a new midseason rule requiring restrictor plates for them. All the other teams looked for some relief from the Toyota (especially Joe Gibbs Racing) domination. So how did that work out? By Kyle Busch leading 197 of 200 laps Saturday night at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis and collecting his sixth win of 2008 in the series.
This week the Nascar Sprint Cup Series heads to Pocono Speedway for the Sunoco – Red Cross 500 on Sunday, while the Nascar Nationwide Series heads north of the border for the Napa Auto Parts 200 at Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Crossville Raceway will run the weekly racing action Friday with gates open at 5 pm and racing at 7 pm. Next week, the Southern Regional Racing Series will return with the Sears of Crossville $3000 Super Late Model race.
Wartburg Speedway, which has been closed the last few weeks returns Friday with the Shoney’s – Morgan County Pro Hardware $4000 Advance Auto Parts Thunder Series Super Late Model race.
The Thunder Series moves to the Mountain Raceway Park Saturday for the Atomic Speedway – Hall of Fame $4000 Super Late Model race.
I-40 Dragway will having testing and Bike racing Friday night with $5K Super Pro and $1K Footbrake action on Saturday night.
